Awami League leader Kazi Zafarullah arrested

The member of the Awami League presidium is accused in a murder case at Paltan Police Station

Kazi Zafarullah, a member of the Awami League Presidium, has been arrested from Dhaka’s Gulshan.

The arrest occurred late on Wednesday night, according to Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (Media and Mass Communications) Talebur Rahman.

“He has been arrested and there is a case against him at Paltan Police Station,” he said.

Zafarullah fell sick after the arrest and was then taken to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.

“Zafarullah is now healthy, but he is still at the hospital,” Talebur said.

On Aug 5, Sheikh Hasina resigned her premiership and fled to India in the face of a student-led mass movement.

Since then, several ministers, MPs, and senior leaders of the Awami League have been arrested.

Zafarullah joined Awami League politics soon after Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

He was elected as MP from the then Faridpur-5 constituency as an Awami League candidate in the 2001 parliamentary election.

Zafarullah ran for the Faridpur-4 seat in the 2014 and 2018 general elections but was defeated by independent candidate Mujibur Rahman Chowdhury.

At the 20th National Conference of the Awami League in 2016, he was elected to the party’s Presidium, its highest policymaking body.

Zafarullah is also a member of the local government and parliamentary nomination board of the party.